[South Florida DX Association] Solar Minimum is a Big Event

[Bill]

SPOTLESS SUNS:  Yesterday, NASA announced that the sun has plunged into the 
deepest solar minimum in nearly a century.  Sunspots have all but vanished 
and consequently the sun has become very quiet. In 2008, the sun had no 
spots 73% of the time, a 95-year low. In 2009, sunspots are even more 
scarce, with the "spotless rate" jumping to 87%.  We are currently 
experiencing a stretch of 25 continuous days uninterrupted by sunspots--and 
there's no end in sight.

This is a big event, but it is not unprecedented. Similarly deep solar 
minima were common in the late-19th and early-20th centuries, and each time 
the sun recovered with a fairly robust solar maximum.  That's probably what 
will happen in the present case, although no one can say for sure. This is 
the first deep solar minimum of the Space Age, and the first one we have 
been able to observe using modern technology.  Is it like others of the 
past?  Or does this solar minimum have its own unique characteristics that 
we will discover for the first time as the cycle unfolds?  These questions 
are at the cutting edge of solar physics.

You can monitor the progress of solar minimum with a new "Spotless Days 
Counter" on spaceweather.com.  Instead of counting sunspots, we're counting 
no sunspots.  Daily updated totals tell you how many spotless days there 
have been in a row, in this year, and in the entire solar cycle. 
Comparisons to historical benchmarks put it all in perspective.  Visit 
http://spaceweather.com for data.

100 HOURS OF ASTRONOMY:  This week, astronomers are celebrating the 400th 
anniversary of Galileo's original telescopic exploration of the sky with 
"100 Hours of Astronomy," a cornerstone project of the International Year of 
Astronomy. Running from April 2 through April 5, many different public 
programs are planned worldwide.  Is one of them near you?  Visit the 100 
Hours web site to find out: http://www.100hoursofastronomy.org/  Note that 
the celebration ends on Sun Day, April 5th, a special date devoted to 
observations of the sun: http://solarastronomy2009.org/100-hours-sunday/ .